Nedbank’s first-quarter income rise as assets grow

Johannesburg - Nedbank Group, the lender being spun out of Old Mutual, said first-quarter net interest income expanded at least 10%, boosted by the country’s highest interest rates in six years.

The net interest margin for the period ended March widened from December’s 3.3%, the Johannesburg-based lender said in a statement on Thursday. The credit loss ratio increased, while remaining within Nedbank’s target range of 60 to 100 basis points, driven by normal seasonality effects in retail banking and higher impairments in corporate and investment banking, the lender said.

The bank increased provisions.

Performance was “in line with management’s expectations for the first three months of the year,” Mike Brown, chief executive officer of Nedbank, said in the statement.

Nedbank’s first-quarter results include a loss in associate income of R676m after accounting for its 20% share of Togo’s Ecobank Transnational’s fourth-quarter loss, the lender said.

The bank is also working with parent company Old Mutual on the UK insurer’s plan to spin off its four operating units including the lender, Nedbank said, adding that it will no longer provide quarterly updates.